Interesting Links for 10-07-2017

[andrewducker]

How startups such as Dropbox, Airbnb, Groupon acquired their first users

(tags: startups business )

How Strength Training Changes Your Body for Good

(tags: exercise weight health )

The 10 ways recipes are undermining your cooking

(tags: recipe advice cooking )

Tiny random movements of money can lead to massive inequality

(tags: inequality money economics viaSwampers )

Edinburgh airport unveils plan for major new home and business complex.

I'd want _really_ good noise insulation
(tags: edinburgh housing business airplanes )

Spotify denies filling popular playlists with fake artists

(tags: fraud music spotify )

Amazon Prime is on track to become more popular than cable TV

(tags: amazon streaming tv )

Comments

[cmcmck]

The one on recipes is intriguing- the only recipes I ever use are the ones stored inside my head from years of trial and error.

The only recipe book I ever look into is my grandma's handwritten one from when she was a head cook in a big house- she knew! :o)

How startups such as Dropbox, Airbnb, Groupon acquired their first users

[jack]

Apparently videos really do work.

I remember someone describing dropbox getting its first funding, with a conversation something like:

A: We want to make a service that shares files between different computers. Maybe other things as well, but to start with exactly that.
B: But there's already services that do that.
A: Do you use any of them?
B: No.
A: See?

But unfortunately, I've only really needed the free dropbox size, so I've not actually contributed iirc.

ETA: Oops, sorry, reposted as not a reply.

[jack]

Writing good instructions, for recipes or otherwise, is really hard. I generally try to do, "give enough context that you can tell which the main bits are and which you can probably wing", but I know, it's very specific to people with a given level of skill.

If I'm teaching young children, I need a lot of "hold the pan handle while you stir it, stay back from the heat but don't try to stir at arms length, etc" which I wouldn't be able to write down because I assume most adults would just know that stuff. And some people need "this is how to prepare veg and boil pasta" and many people don't. So I'll try to say, "if you're not sure, try doing this, but anything along these lines are fine" or "I did it this way, I might do x y or z but I haven't tried them" or "I can't do X but if you can, try it here".

Tiny random movements of money can lead to massive inequality

[doug]

Boundaries make such a difference to complex random/arbitrary systems. I have a theory that at some of the effect of inherited privilege isn't so much that rich parents can buy their children better opportunities (although they often can), it's that they can draw a higher bar for how bust their kids can get. A moderately well-off parent can give their adult child a place to crash and food to eat if everything else goes badly for them; a very well-off parent can slip them an allowance well north of the median wage. The rest is down to the mechanics of bounded random walks.

Re: Tiny random movements of money can lead to massive inequality

[snippy]

I think of it as the affordance field being wider. Or the choice field being wider. This encompasses your idea about raising the lowest rung for your own kid, but brings in the wider ways you can try things (and the longer list of things you can try). Taking a gap year is something lots of people do, but the ones who do it by working hard and saving money have a gap year with different affordances than the ones who do it on their allowance or because the parents agreed it was an important life experience.

Re: Tiny random movements of money can lead to massive inequality

[armiphlage]

Also, a well-off relative can hire a bankruptcy attorney, so debts can be wiped out.

Re: Tiny random movements of money can lead to massive inequality

[andrewducker]

Oh yes. Not entirely random, but definitely at least somewhat.

I'm in a _much_ better situation because my parents could bail me out (and give me a great start in life).